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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY 3 A WORD FROM THE CHAIR 4 WORLD YOUTH SINFONIETTA 5 CHENNAI 6 FUKUSHIMA 8 ACCRA 10 CERRITOS 12 QUITO 14 OAXACA 15 LOOKING AHEAD 16 FINANCIALS 17 |
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Keys of Change is funded entirely by donations from generous individuals who believe, as the trustees do, that music can change the world.
As trustees of Keys of Change, we should like to express our sincere gratitude to all our friends, supporters, musicians and volunteers for the support they have given through the years.
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
Address 6 Wyvern Road Purley CR8 2NP
Trustees: Chair Other trustees
P. Karan C. Patrick F. Nwaegbe
Bankers
HSBC 54 Woodcote Road Wallington Surrey SM6 ONJ
Organisational Structure
Trustees meet regularly and are responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the Charity.
Public Benefit
The trustees confirm that they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Trust’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.
Objectives
The objectives of the Charity are:
Governing Document
Keys of Change CIO ("the Charity") is a charity, governed by a trust deed adopted 20th November 2015. It is registered as a charity in England and Wales, number 1166756.
Trustees
- the advancement of the arts, in particular music, for the public benefit, including by providing musical instruments and access to musical tuition and by providing opportunities to perform in public and listen to live performances to young people living in poverty or in difficult circumstances anywhere in the world. (For the purpose of this clause, "difficult" includes suffering due to illness, the aftermath of a natural disaster, conflict or an epidemic).
Trustees are recruited from people who have an interest in advancing musical education internationally. They are appointed by vote of existing trustees.
A W O R D F R O M P A N O S
This has been a year of new beginnings, as the world gradually started opening up again, and we all moved forward towards the post pandemic era. When I set up Keys of Change in 2011, my main motivation was to use music as a powerful tool to inspire, motivate and change lives and the world for the better. Eleven years later, at the end of 2022, many of us, including myself, need this change ourselves and would like to be inspired, motivated and encouraged by the sense of a new beginning.
The year started with a virtual performance of our World Youth Sinfonietta, which brought together more than 40 young musicians from the five corners of the world, most of whom had never met each other before, for a moving performance of Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma Variations. They performed in a spirit of unity, determination and hope. In Ghana we launched a new teacher programme by sending music teachers to live on-site for several months, in order to teach and work closely with our students for a longer period of time than had previously been possible. In Fukushima we helped restart the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta, and we also brought music to elderly care homes and centres looking after the survivors of the 2011 disaster. In Ecuador, our guitar classes in Quito continued and expanded, while we also helped set up a brass band in the
remote Andes. In Mexico our music classes, in person and online, continued supporting the inspiring work of the young children living next to the garbage dump in Oaxaca. And last but not least in India, we supported and witnessed the birth of the Chennai Youth Sinfonietta, whose launch had been delayed due to the pandemic.
For a long time, I have advocated that music can be a pivotal element in helping children turn around their lives, and, especially when facing difficulties, to inspire, empower and give hope in times of crisis. In 2022, I saw it time and again, in person, not in abstract terms but in concrete ways, just by adding the simple element of music in young people's lives: from giving up to trying hard, from hopeless present to hopeful future, from failure to success. Indeed, this was the theme of the Keys of Change short video film "Can Music Change the World?" which won Bronze in the 2022 annual UK Charity Film Awards.
I’d like to thank all our teachers, volunteers and staff, who work tirelessly to make our vision a reality. More than anything, I’d like to thank our supporters and donors. It is because of your belief in us that we are able to continue bringing music to the darkest parts of the planet, and it is because of this music that the world, for many children, is becoming a better place.
W O R L D Y O U T H S I N F O N I E T T A
Our dream of connecting young people around the world through music continues with the Keys of Change World Youth Sinfonietta.
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA and our young musicians all around the world
We have long used music to connect young people around the world, and give life-changing opportunities through music exchanges. It has long been our dream to create a global youth orchestra that captures this message.
Back in 2020, despite the challenges the arts and live music faced, we were able to take the first step in this direction. With the help of technology, this dream of connecting young people around the world through music came to life with the establishment of the Keys of Change World Youth Sinfonietta. This activity, that started during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, was so successful that we decided to continue in 2021 and 2022.
In the Keys of Change World Youth Sinfonietta, young musicians from five corners of the world, all of whom are
Click on the image above to view the performance of the World Youth Sinfonietta.
learning music in the Keys of Change projects but most of whom had never met each other before, came together in a positive and creative spirit, to use music and music learning to improve themselves and share with the world something that would otherwise never have been expected from them: unity, determination, hope. The piece they performed online in 2022 was Bizet’s Farandole from Suite L’Arlésienne.
C H E N N A I
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA and Musée Musical
The launch of a new orchestra, the Chennai Youth Sinfonietta.
Keys of Change first came to Chennai in May 2019. Western classical music has a limited presence in South India but interest has been increasing. There was no regular orchestra or youth orchestra performing in the city, yet more and more young students are learning Western instruments. Keys of Change became part of a group of partners assisting in the creation of a youth orchestra in the city of Chennai, which would be open to players of all levels and backgrounds, but particularly to those contending with difficulties in life. It aimed to be an empowerment opportunity for all those involved.
During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, while waiting for social distancing rules to ease, we continued weekly group rehearsals online with the young musicians of the Chennai Youth Sinfonietta (CYS). Using our teachers’ network from Europe, South America and Australia, we provided online guidance for string and wind players.
With the date of the orchestra launch finally set for October 2022, Keys of Change sent one teacher (Pedro Gomez) to Chennai for two weeks in August, followed by one month in September, in order for him to assist with the preparation. Daily rehearsals were held at the premises of our local partner, Musée Musical, in which 19 students took part. Most of the students come for very humble backgrounds, and this was an invitation for them to participate in something quite unique.
More than 500 people came to the launch concert. The response from the audience said it all: the orchestra received a standing ovation — their first standing ovation, the first time perhaps in their lives that they felt the results of their hard work were seen, recognised, applauded, admired. The young musicians worked as a musical team, often experiencing this kind of intense and focused teamwork for the first time in their lives. They were following and leading, they were flexible with the music, they were listening, to themselves and to those around them, they felt responsible for others, they felt proud of what they were doing, they discovered a self-worth that they had probably never imagined before. At the end, they all expressed a keen desire to continue their rehearsals and present more performances.
C H E N N A I : P H O T O J O U R N A L
Images and videos from the launch of the Chennai Youth Sinfonietta
F U K U S H I M A
Bringing live music to elderly care homes, shelters and volunteer centres looking after survivors of the 2011 disaster, plus the restart of the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA and NPO Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta
In a 3,000 km journey across Northeastern Japan in January and August 2022, Panos Karan gave more than 20 performances at different elderly care homes, shelters and volunteer centres looking after survivors of the 2011 disaster. Panos says about his return to Tohoku: “I never stop being amazed at how much a simple musical activity can do. There are no limits to connecting people directly. Putting a keyboard up on two chairs, pressing the piano pedals with slippers and sharing music with those who are now at the age when they are about to hand over to us the world we live in, the people who have been mercilessly attacked by the pandemic, the generation of grandmothers and grandfathers who had to leave without a proper farewell.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, while all musical activities had to be paused, the members of the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta (FYS) created a documentary to share their thoughts and emotions about the disaster and the ways music has played an important role for them. The original members of the FYS and their families have since decided they would like to continue these musical activities and performances, and invite new members to join. Keeping in focus the messages learned from the disaster, they continue to use music to look ahead to the future with a positive attitude. The international scope of the orchestra, including the continuous guidance from teachers from all around the world, remains one of its core values.
In August 2022, the FYS was finally able to restart its activities and Keys of Change returned to Fukushima once again, to support the rehearsals and concerts. More than 50 musicians from the greater Fukushima area, including many original members of the group, as well as many younger, newly joined members, came together to perform two concerts with a demanding symphonic programme, in Fukushima and Koriyama Cities. This was a renewed opportunity for past and new members, to spread the orchestra’s positive messages with a wider audience and to become again a safe space for practicing music.
F U K U S H I M A : P H O T O J O U R N A L
Images and video from the restart of the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta
A C C R A
Keys of Change is committed to nurturing young musicians in Accra, empowering them with skills that will last a lifetime.
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA, and Kinder Paradise
Keys of Change has been involved in Ghana since 2018, providing music education and performance opportunities to young Ghanaians who come from harsh and deprived backgrounds. Keys of Change successfully launched the Accra Youth Sinfonietta in 2019 and conducted online music classes through the pandemic period of 2020 and 2021. Together, in collaboration with our local partner Kinder Paradise (a home for children and teenagers escaping neglect, violence and other abuse), it was decided that, starting in 2022, Keys of Change would introduce a programme where music teachers travel to Ghana and provide face-to-face music classes.
The structure we have set up is for two international music teachers to be on the ground in Ghana for a period of up to six months. During that time, they live at the Kinder Paradise compound, providing daily lessons to the children. These personalised music lessons are structured to be a time for the children at Kinder Paradise to experience a confidence-building process, to develop leadership and collaboration skills and, most importantly, to feel a positive sense of self-worth.
As a midterm goal, the music teachers had to create and sustain a structured schedule of musical classes, during which the participating students could continue improving their musical skills. Given the very harsh backgrounds many of the children come from, structure and stability are essential for them to feel safe and have an opportunity to grow, but at the same time the experience must also be challenging. The rate of improvement for individual children varied greatly. but it was important for the classes to remain regular. Progress, however small, was always recorded. In some cases, progress was phenomenal, and some unique talents, often unexpected, were identified.
The long-term goal of using music as a tool to improve the lives of the children is a fundamental objective of Keys of Change. This means we use music as a tool to improve
the lives of the children participating in the programme, inspiring, building self-worth, confidence and empowerment. The music teachers quickly embraced their role, not only as music teachers but also as life coaches. We cannot emphasise enough the sad fact that these children have never received the support, trust and guidance of an adult prior to coming to Kinder Paradise. The music teachers, along with Kinder Paradise staff, essentially stepped into the role of a parent, helping the students feel better about their present and future.
A C C R A : P H O T O J O U R N A L
Images of our teachers and students at the Kinder Paradise home
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA, the Condor Trust for Education and the Dulcepamba Project
C E R R I T O S
“A village without music is a village without a soul”, says a local proverb, and so the village of Cerritos, located deep in the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes, already has a musical soul.
In 2021, responding to a request from local community representatives, we launched a new programme in Ecuador involving 20 young people. This group, who live in a village deep in the Andes, had been dreaming of creating a wind and brass band in order to preserve their unique culture and ancestral traditions. With the help of Keys of Change, this dream is now a reality.
Keys of Change relies on the help of six teachers from inside and outside Ecuador, and also on the logistical support of our local partners, the Dulcepamba Project and the Condor Trust for Education, so that we were able to ship more musical instruments to the community. We currently teach individually the following instruments: clarinet, trombone, saxophone, trumpet, flute and musical theory.
The youth of the community, apart from going to school, devote most of their time working in the fields with their families. Although the prospects are very limited, the community has shown a strong desire for unity, and the students were able to keep up attendance at online music classes all through the pandemic, enabling them to reach a level sufficiently high to perform as a group.
In August 2022, two of our teachers, Maribel (clarinet) and Andres (trumpet) travelled to Ecuador from Mexico and spent one month teaching in Cerritos, giving individual lessons and holding group rehearsals. The attendance remained at 100% for the duration of this music camp. This was a much-needed boost that helped the band come together, and for the first time perform as a group. As one of the goals of all Keys of Change projects is live music through public performances, the teachers’ stay in the community culminated in the band’s first appearance, performing for the community’s local “fiesta”, followed by a performance in a nearby village.
The development of the band in Cerritos has given a sense of unity, pride and hope to all the participants and to the community overall. Apart from helping better sustain the sense of identity and preserving vanishing traditions through music, the band has given an opportunity to its members to expand their horizons and look at new possibilities for the future. For example, the majority of young people in Cerritos typically work in agriculture, and for some, their biggest ambition was to work for the police. Since joining the band, many have expressed a desire to become music teachers and a wish to share their musical traditions with other parts of Ecuador.
C E R R I T O S : P H O T O J O U R N A L
Images of our teachers and students in Cerritos, Ecuador
Q U I T O
In Ecuador, the country where we started teaching music in 2011, our music programme goes from strength to strength.
Ecuador is the first musical project Keys of Change created back in 2011. With the help of our local partner, the Condor Trust for Education, we continue to support the musical education of twenty children from deprived backgrounds who live in and around Quito. In 2021 were able to restart the group guitar lessons that take place weekly under the roof of the Condor Trust for Education, and in 2022, we welcomed new students to the group. Apart from the weekly group lessons, we also offer advanced guitar classes and a teacher training programme for students that wish to take their music education to the next level, and who, we hope, will also be able to teach the rest of the group soon.
Over the years, our musical activities have expanded. Alongside guitar tuition, we now also provide singing and violin lessons. Our choir meets weekly and performs a growing repertoire of mainly South American songs, sometimes unaccompanied and sometimes together with our guitar students. In June 2022, all the young musicians took part in a concert we organised in central Quito. For most, it was the first time they had performed in public and, despite initial nerves, they enjoyed it hugely. They came off stage “as if they were 2 metres tall”, said one teacher.
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA and the Condor Trust for Education
O A X A C A
“While Oaxaca gives us their garbage, we give them back music!” Santa Sicilia music school, Oaxaca, Mexico
In collaboration with Keys of Change USA and the Banda de la Música
In 2011, young people facing incredible difficulties in the community of Vincente Guerrero, near Oaxaca, including drugs, violence and poverty, decided they needed an outlet in their daily lives to help them escape this hard reality of life in their barrio. They chose music, formed the Banda de la Música and, with the help of a local music teacher, set up a music school. Six years after its formation, and with significant positive results for the young people participating in this musical programme, in 2017 Keys of Change decided to support the desire of these young musicians to create something beautiful in the face of all adversity. La Banda de la Musica has now developed into a youth symphony orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Santa Cecilia, which has become a shining example of how music can improve the lives of children coming from some of the toughest backgrounds.
Our programme in Oaxaca, Mexico, supports the musical education of 50 young students living on the outskirts of the city, in a community next to the landfill. The motto of the community is “while Oaxaca gives us their garbage, we give them back music”. Since 2021 Keys of Change USA has enabled two teachers to be based there or to visit regularly. Together, they were able to provide more than 60 hours of classes a month.
reported how continually surprised and delighted the teachers there were to find that our students who have such a commitment to practice and a high standard, came from a colony in Oaxaca with such a difficult past and story. It is real proof that music can change lives for the better and that the project is deserving of more and more help.
The project is incredibly important in the community and its influence is only growing each year. We are proud, along with all teachers in Oaxaca, to hear just how well regarded those of our students who are now studying in the National University of Mexico are. One of the mothers
L O O K I N G A H E A D
At the core of Keys of Change is its message “music can change the world”. In 2023, we plan to make our aim of bringing together young musicians from different parts of the world a more concrete reality.
Strengthening our partnerships, expanding our teaching programme, sustaining our youth orchestras.
In 2023, we plan to do this in a number of ways:
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Sending our teachers to all our projects for face-to-face teaching, while at the same time continuing to make the most of the advantages of online teaching;
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Preparing for and putting on live performances involving all the young people we are working with;
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Providing more instruments for our new groups to use;
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Creating more opportunities for young people to hear live musical performances.
Research, and our own experience, have shown time and time again that music can be beneficial for people in many ways, from helping establish close connections with others to improving a sense of confidence and control. Keys of Change has seen in all its projects the motivation and inspiration that music-making can bring. We are looking forward in 2023 and beyond to once more fully embracing our purpose of spreading these benefits of music even more widely.
We hope this will include a repeat performance for the Chennai Youth Sinfonietta, a commemorative recording for the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta, local concerts given by our young musicians in Ghana and more performances of the newly formed Banda in Ecuador. We also hope to create more exchange opportunities for our groups to perform and work together, and to support the further development of the World Youth Sinfonietta
Through these activities, we aim to continue to inspire our students and help them, through music, to create a future for themselves and their communities that is brighter, more purposeful and more hopeful.
Keys of Change will continue to work to support the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, to build a better world for people and our planet by 2030. The goals most closely connected with our activities are:
A C C O U N T S
Charity Name Keys of Change CIO |
Charity Name Keys of Change CIO |
Charity Name Keys of Change CIO |
No (if any) 1166756 |
CC16a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts andpayments accounts | ||||
| For the period from |
Period start date 01/01/2022 |
To |
Period end date 31/12/2022 |
| Section A Receipts and | payments | Last year to the nearest £ 10,611 1,978 398 - - - - - 12,987 - - 12,987 4,476 7,656 798 - - - - - - 12,930 - 12,930 57 - 2,458 2,515 B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details | Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Restricted funds to nearest £ |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
|||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| Donations | 10,381 | - | - | 10,381 | 10,611 | - | - | - | |
| Concert income | 2,685 | - | 2,685 | 1,978 | |||||
| HMRC Gift Aid | 1,714 | - | - | 1,714 | 398 | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 14,780 | - | - | 14,780 | 12,987 | Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
- | - | |||||||
| 14,780 | - | - | 14,780 | 12,987 | - | - | |||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||||
Projects |
8,819 | - | - | 8,819 | 4,476 | ||||
| Teaching | 4,586 | - | - | 4,586 | 7,656 | - | - | ||
| Other | 467 | - | - | 467 | 798 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 13,872 | - | - | 13,872 | 12,930 | - | - | ||
| - | - | ||||||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
- | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | Details | Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) |
When due (optional) |
||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
- | ||||||||
| 13,872 | - | - | 13,872 | 12,930 | |||||
| - | |||||||||
| 908 | - | - |
908 |
57 | - | ||||
| - | **- ** | - | - | **- ** | - | ||||
| 2,515 | - | - | 2,515 | 2,458 | - | ||||
| 3,423 | - | - |
3,423 | 2,515 | |||||
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Signature | Name | Date of approval | ||||||
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period |
|||||||||
| Πάνος Καράν | Panos | Karan | 1 March 2023 | ||||||
| Details | Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Restricted funds to nearest £ |
14/04/2023 Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - OK CCXX R2 accounts (SS) |
||||||
| 2 | |||||||||
| 3,423 | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| 1 Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
3,423 | - | - | ||||||
| OK | OK | ||||||||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Signature | Print Name | Date of approval | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section B | Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted Restricted funds |
Endowment | Πάνος Καράν | Panos Karan | 1 March 2023 | ||||||||||||||||
| Categories | Details | funds to nearest £ |
to nearest £ | funds to nearest £ |
|||||||||||||||||
| B1 Cash funds | 3,423 | - | |||||||||||||||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||||||||||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||||||||||||||
| Total cash funds | 3,423 | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||
| CCXX R1 | accounts (SS) | (agree balances | 1 with receipts and payments account(s)) |
OK | OK | 14/04/2023 OK |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS) | 2 | 14/04/2023 | ||||||||||||